Sunday, February 4, 2007

Hotels a-sprouting

Interesting quote from our borough president: “We like that space and air in between,” she said, arguing that the arrival of such a tall building might set a dangerous precedent. “This is not Manhattan. To see a whole stream of tall buildings along one of our avenues is just not acceptable.”

Why is it not acceptable along Northern Boulevard but perfectly ok in Long Island City, Astoria, Flushing and along Queens Blvd? Don't those residents also like space and air in between?

21 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Well, here is one for our newspaper friends (you listening Tribune?)

Let me do this in caps cause I don't know if the sight of dinosaurs is that good (although their sense of smell, particularly anything green (plant eaters) or rotting meat (carnivores), some scientists believe was keen.)

WHY DON'T THEY ASK THE CITY COUNCIL PEOPLE IN THOSE AREAS SLATED FOR DEVELOPMENT, WHOSE CONSTITUENTS FACE LOSS OF LIGHT (THINK QUEENSBRIDGE HOUSES) TO COMMENT ON THIS!

Forest Hills is full of high rise buildings. What's to crap about a few more! It's the ideal place to shove the tall hotels in. But, of course, Forest Hills folks have political "juice" and will do their best to protect their air space. Let's see if they can sweet talk Hesckel into trimming 10 floors off his proposed Austin St. monster!

Funny how Beep Marshal is in favor of over-development in one area but against it in another! A perfect "dancing partner" for Melinda Katz (if you catch my drift)! Lets keep our borough ....I believe the word is...."bustling"..... with growth and pockets full of builders $$$$$$$$$$$!

At least the architect's depiction for the Forest Hills job looks classy. The hotels in John Liu's Flushing district charge hourly rates! Gee, maybe exotic sex junkets to Downtown Flushing could become a major tourist draw just like in Bangkok!

if we want to leave an inhabitable planet for our kids and their kids then we're going to have to accept the fact that urban density is necessary and a far better alternative to suburban sprawl. arguing against high rises because you think that high rises only belong in manhattan is ridiculous.

Well said. If you want to live in a high rise district, then move to one. We chose this area because it was lower density. Besides, everyone knows that black out last summer was caused by all those illegal conversions, not Con Ed. Everyone knows the infrastructure in Queens is about ready for a major failure. Another several 100,000s and the support grid holding up the borough will collapse - transporation, schools, hospitals, etc.

Do some research! Check out the increasing Asthma rates and Cancer clusters that are sprouting up all around the new high rise areas in Queens! Our kids and grand-kids may not have to worry about having a habitable planet to live on in the future. They may not survive long enough to enjoy it!

A native American piece of wisdom worthy of pasing on: "We do not inheirit the land from our fathers. We borrow it from our grandchildren". If we don't adopt a sane municipal land use policy (not the land abuse system that Katz, Doctoroff & Co. favor) we will be abusing our children. Our legacy to them will come from the Devil himself!

You builders (who are posting in disguise) that favor stacking our spacious borough with smoke spewing monoliths that suck up our resources and damage our fragile infrastructure........I'll bet you don't even live here. When all of you "Vampires" are finished feeding off of Queens, I guess you go home to Old Brookville, Westbury or Muttontown! Maybe we ought to find the "earth boxes" where you hide during daylight and open the lids! Let's see who you are and what you look like!

Time to redirect the discussion back to what this post was meant to be about. Whether or not the size of the hotel in Forest Hills is appropriate is debatable, however, the post was meant to spotlight the glaring hypocrisy of our borough president in saying that a large hotel on Northern Boulevard in Corona is no good, will set a "dangerous precedent" because "this is not Manhattan" and "a whole stream of buildings along one of our avenues is just not acceptable." She is the same person who features a slideshow of "great" larger scale development projects in other parts of the borough on her website. No more sniping at each other, please.

You're so biased that it is ridiculous. You say that we should stop "sniping" at each other, yet you post the comment that "snipes" at me because it is anti-development. But you refuse to post my comment in response which supports the hotel in Forest Hills.

I thought that maybe you were interested in a real debate about the issue of development in Queens. I guess all you are really interested in is hearing from people who agree with you.

For the record, I never posted anything pro or con about the hotel in Forest Hills. I just printed a link to the article about it and an observation about a comment made by our boro prez about a different building. If you read the other comments, you'll see I post things in favor of development as well as criticism of this blog. I am an equal opportunity moderator.

Since you had an objection, I have deleted both your last rude comment and the equally rude reply.

It's my blog and if you don't like the fact that comments are moderated, get your own blog. It's free. Caprici?

The first dangerous precedent set for erecting tall buildings in Queens was City Bank tower on Jackson Ave. in Long Island City. Borough President Marshal is "out to lunch" as usual! All that "air and space" she seems to be advocating for is between her ears! The LIC and Astoria waterfront is looking a little more like Manhatan as each day progresses. Boro Hall advocated over- building Hunters Point way back in the early 1980s. Narrow Main St. Flushing is all already choked up and future plans for building up Queens Blvd. (although wider) are a mess. Why, indeed, does Beep Marshal draw the line on Northern Blvd. since she's pro large scale development everywhere else?

Give be a break about being an "equal opportunity" moderator. You call your blog "Queens Crap" and the description at the top of the page says the blog focuses on the "problem of overdevelopment" in Queens. I've looked through many of your posts and have not yet found one that supports any new development.

If you are so unbiased, can you please name one new development in Queens that you support?

Development I support? How about the Atlas Mall in Glendale. It provides jobs, plenty of parking and is a vast improvement over the desolate junkie railyard hangout that was there previously.

The Restaurant Depot in West Maspeth on the former site of the Phelps Dodge Plant is another example of smart development. Remediation of the pollution at the site, more jobs created, and the company is providing and maintaining public access to Newtown Creek.

I also support the expansion of the Feldman Lumber Yard at the intersection of Metropolitan Avenue and Grand Street on the Brooklyn-Queens border for similar reasons.

Yes, this blog is for people who believe that overdevelopment is a problem. If you don't think it is then why not go visit Curbed, Brownstoner or Gothamist and post there?

As someone who lives in Forest Hills, I'm glad it'll be here. I want to live in an area that has a thriving economy and vibrant nightlife and isn't a bedroom community for Manhattan. Traffic may get worse (I don't really think it will, by the way, since people who come to NYC on vacation here don't rent cars to bounce from sight to sight), but that's something you deal with as par for the course in a city of 8 million people.

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